{"id":112658,"date":"2022-06-15T23:10:28","date_gmt":"2022-06-16T03:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=112658"},"modified":"2022-06-15T23:10:28","modified_gmt":"2022-06-16T03:10:28","slug":"yoccos-celebrates-100th-year-by-starting-100000-endowment-for-mercy-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=112658","title":{"rendered":"Yocco\u2019s celebrates 100th year by starting $100,000 endowment for Mercy School"},"content":{"rendered":"

June 15, 2022 \u2013 Allentown, PA \u2013 To celebrate its 100th<\/sup> year as the \u201cthe Hot Dog King\u201d in the Lehigh Valley, Yocco\u2019s made a grand gesture to create an endowment fund with the Catholic Foundation of Eastern Pennsylvania to provide long-term support for Mercy School for Special Learning which has served children and young adults with special needs for 68 years.<\/p>\n

Gary Iacocca, President, and his son Chris Iacocca, Vice President Operations, recently presented a $100,000 check to the Catholic Foundation to start the Mercy School Teacher Excellence Endowment Fund. The occasion marked the midway point of the centennial year of Yocco\u2019s founding in 1922. Yocco\u2019s is a fourth-generation, family-owned fast food restaurant chain specializing in hotdogs, cheesesteaks, pierogies and other quick-to-eat food items.<\/p>\n

While Yocco\u2019s marketing materials claim the \u201csecret\u201d to its success \u201cis in the Sauce,\u201d employees and customers know it\u2019s the love, loyalty and generosity that the Iacocca family show to the community that has never wavered for a century.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family and our Yocco\u2019s employees have always had a soft spot in our hearts for our community and particularly for the Mercy School,\u201d Gary Iacocca said. \u201cThis endowment fund will ensure that Mercy will have the future income it needs to provide the best academic experience for its students and teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Iacoccas and Yocco\u2019s employees have been fundraising for Mercy for almost 30 years with the placement of donation collection canisters at all six Yocco\u2019s locations in the Lehigh Valley. However, the centennial gift represents an accumulation of donations received during the past two years from Yocco\u2019s loyal customers, hardworking employees and committed corporate leadership. The Iacoccas and their team noticed an increase in generosity since Covid-19 started.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw a rise in giving during the pandemic,\u201d Gary said. \u201cOur customers were glad to see we were open and able to provide them with our famous hot dogs, and the fun, comfort food they love. Their extra special display of gratitude towards supporting our campaign for Mercy School is heartwarming.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the influx of support, Gary contacted the Catholic Foundation to discuss creating an endowment fund that would provide ongoing support for the Mercy School.<\/p>\n

\u201cA big lesson learned during the pandemic is that non-profit organizations can no longer back-burner\u00a0 actions to create endowment funds,\u201d Pete Waldron, President of the Catholic Foundation, said. \u201cAn endowment fund becomes a fiscal vaccine for crisis preparedness and a lifeline to a healthy future for any non-profit organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Catholic Foundation applauds the Iacocca family and Yocco\u2019s for having the vision to create an endowment fund that will generate steady income for the future and allow Mercy School to fulfill its mission forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the past five years, Waldron has noticed an increase in individual donors, like Iacocca, starting endowment funds to support their favorite Catholic causes. Once an endowment fund is opened, people can add to it with additional gifts now (cash or IRA distribution) or later (gift in a will, IRA beneficiary or memorial gifts in an obituary).<\/p>\n

The Yocco\u2019s team will continue its ongoing fundraising effort to grow Mercy\u2019s endowment funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are confident our customers will join our employees and company leadership in continuing to support this cause,\u201d Gary said. \u201cThere always will be a need to help the students and families served by the Mercy School.\u201d<\/p>\n

And no one knows the needs better than Iacocca. Gary\u2019s involvement with Mercy began almost 40 years ago when he was invited to serve on the first Mercy Development Board to assist the school with fundraising and marketing efforts. The Development Board later morphed into a formal Board of Directors which Iacocca served on for six years.<\/p>\n

While not formally serving on the Board, Gary stays involved with Mercy in other ways. In addition to daily fundraising support, Yocco\u2019s also participates in Mercy Job Works as a job site providing real life work skills training for Mercy students ages 15 and older.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are so blessed to have had the support of Gary and Yocco\u2019s for so many years,\u201d Beth Grys, Principal of Mercy School, said. \u201cHealthy endowment funds allow Mercy School to continue offering the best educational experiences for our students.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s the primary goal of Iacocca and the Catholic Foundation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end, it\u2019s all about the kids,\u201d Gary said.\u00a0 \u201cWe greatly appreciate our customers\u2019 and employees\u2019 ongoing generosity in supporting the wonderful students and teachers at Mercy School.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now that\u2019s something worth celebrating for the next 100 years.<\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nPete Waldron at the Catholic Foundation
\nhttps:\/\/www.catholicfoundationep.org\/<\/a>
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

June 15, 2022 \u2013 Allentown, PA \u2013 To celebrate its 100th year as the \u201cthe Hot Dog King\u201d in the Lehigh Valley, Yocco\u2019s made a grand gesture to create an … Continue reading Yocco\u2019s celebrates 100th year by starting $100,000 endowment for Mercy School<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112659,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Yoccos-donation.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112658"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=112658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/112659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=112658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=112658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=112658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}